A rapist who groomed a 15-year-old girl, took her to the cinema and attacked her in a hotel. A man who stabbed his stepfather six times in an 'utterly astonishing' attack.
A controlling thug who terrorised his ex-girlfriend 'tried to blind her' so she couldn't look at other men during a 'sadistic' attack. A woman set a fire in her own flat whilst on FaceTime to her family in a cry for help.
READ MORE: Dad's terror that he and daughter, 16, will soon be homeless - weeks after amputation
Jail sentences are handed out to the worst offenders each week and Manchester Evening News reporters are in court to cover the most serious cases.
Here are some of the criminals locked up in Greater Manchester this week
The vile rapist who claimed he was 17 to take girl, 15, to cinema... then subjected her to horrific hotel room attack
A rapist who groomed a 15-year-old girl, took her to the cinema and attacked her in a hotel has been jailed for over nine years.
Jordan Lanzon, 26, befriended the girl on social media after making numerous accounts to contact her.
He claimed he was 17 when he was actually 23.
The pair met in November 2019 in Manchester city centre where they went to the cinema.
The following month they met again and Lanzon told the teen that he had booked them a hotel room to escape the cold.
It was there that he raped her, a court previously heard.
They continued to communicate, with Lanzon repeatedly booking hotel rooms for them and inviting her to join him.
She reported feeling scared and forced into having sex with him on multiple occasions.
He also asked her to perform sexual acts over video calls and via texts, it was said.
Following a trial in January this year, Lanzon, of Whalley Range, was found guilty of offences of rape, and had earlier pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual activity with a child, and causing/inciting a child to engage in sexual activity as well as an unrelated assault.
On Friday (March 4) he was jailed for nine-and-a-half years at Minshull Street Crown Court.
The man who stabbed his stepfather six times during an 'utterly astonishing' attack
This is the man who stabbed his stepfather six times in an 'utterly astonishing' attack.
Alan Brown, 44, shared a close bond with his stepfather Lee Hiley, who described Brown as his 'best friend'.
But following a row over an old motorbike the pair were restoring, Brown launched a senseless knife attack in the home they shared with his mother Teresa McCarthy.
Ms McCarthy was 'convinced' that her partner, Mr Hiley, was going to die.
He suffered a collapsed lung during the attack at the property in Cheadle, Stockport, but has since made a full recovery.
As Brown was locked up for stabbing him, Mr Hiley told how he 'still loves the defendant dearly' and 'just wanted him to get help'.
Brown, of Cornwall Avenue, Levenshulme, was jailed for two years.
The texting lorry driver who killed a nurse in a horrific M62 smash - then desperately tried to evade justice
A lorry driver was discovered to be exchanging text messages while driving, causing the death of a nurse in a multiple-vehicle crash on the M62.
Nicholas Liever, 49, was driving a Volvo HGV when it smashed into a Volkswagen Passat, an Iveco Vehicle Transporter and a Volkswagen Touareg at around 10.40am on September 5, 2019.
Karen McDonagh, 51, the driver of the Passat, suffered fatal injuries.
An investigation by the Major Collision Enquiry Team revealed that Liever was exchanging text messages in the time leading up to the collision, with the last one sent around the time of the crash.
But during an interview, Liever lied and told police that he was not distracted at the time of the crash and claimed the incident, between Junction 22 for Rishworth Moor and Junction 23, was unavoidable.
He had also attempted to delete the data from his phone to hide the incriminating evidence - but it was retrieved by a specialist investigator.
Liever, of Clifton Road in Fishtoft, Lincolnshire, has since pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving and was jailed for four years and four months at Leeds Crown Court.
Woman was left 'fearing for her life' after man smashes up flat then sets it on fire
A man who set fire to a woman's flat after an argument has been jailed.
Simon Edgcumbe, 34, also rang his victim to threaten that he would 'find her and kill her', Bolton Crown Court heard.
He has now been sentenced to two years and 10 months imprisonment.
The court was told that on June 29 2020, Edgcumbe and the woman had an argument at her Bolton flat. He then left and started driving around the town centre in an 'erratic' manner.
Edgcumbe then returned to her home and became aggressive after drinking alcohol and smashed up the flat. Fearing for her own safety, the woman decided to go to a relative's home and Edgcumbe was captured on CCTV, coming and going from the flat throughout the evening.
The 34-year-old rang his victim telling her that he would "find her and kill her" and around 9pm, residents in the same block of flats reported a fire. The fire service attended and found that the fire had started inside the victim's flat.
Shortly after, the court heard that Edgcumbe arrived at a family member's home in an agitated state ranting about the victim.
Officers later attended at his home in Leicester Avenue, Horwich, and arrested him on suspicion of arson.
In interview, he answered no comment to all questions but eventually pleaded guilty to arson with recklessness as to whether life was endangered.
Evil carer pretended to be elderly man's daughter and left him with just four pence in bank after raiding him for thousands
The family of an elderly man who had £30,000 stolen by a scheming carer said he was so devastated that he 'gave up living' after her vile crimes were revealed.
Michelle Summerhill, from Wythenshawe, was secretly withdrawing cash from Marcel Brown's bank accounts while he paid her to act as a carer, helping with cleaning and doing his shopping. One bank account had a balance of just four pence after Summerhill had raided it.
Summerhill, 55, even posed as Mr Brown's daughter to cash in his £20,000 premium bonds. She was left £10,000 in his will after he died aged 88, such was the regard he had for her.
Efforts were made to change his will after her deception was uncovered, but it was too late and she received the sum.
Mr Brown, who was originally born in France and lived alone in Wythenshawe, didn't have children of his own but he treated Summerhill like his own daughter. Her betrayal left him devastated and embarrassed, his family say.
"He gave up living," Mr Brown's stepson Michael Deasey told the M.E.N, after Summerhill was jailed for 10 months for theft.
"He died within 12 months. He just couldn't believe what she had done, after what he had done for her."
The woman who woman who set fire to her own flat whilst on FaceTime to family in cry for help
A woman set a fire in her own flat whilst on FaceTime to her family in a cry for help.
Siobhan Houldsworth, 26, was speaking to her sister on Facebook when she set fire to a pile of clothes in her bedroom.
She suggested that her intention was to commit suicide, Minshull Street Crown Court heard.
Emergency services quickly arrived, and found Houldsworth, of Stockport, on the balcony, before escorting her out.
Fortunately, no one was injured in the fire, but damage was caused to her flat, the flat below as well as the communal areas, costing between £15,000 and £25,000.
Houldsworth pleaded guilty to an offence of arson being reckless as to whether life was endangered on Tuesday (March 1) and was jailed for two years.
Terror of delivery drivers targeted by teen thugs in horrifying armed robberies
Teen thugs armed with fearsome meat cleavers targeted delivery drivers during appalling armed robberies.
The gang struck twice within an hour, lying in wait as two takeaway drivers tried to do their jobs in Oldham on a busy Saturday night.
Declan Hawley, 18, one of the gang who said he didn't wield any weapons, was caught and has been locked up for almost five years.
Hawley, who hadn't been in trouble with the law previously, said he'd got involved with a 'bad crowd' and suffered peer pressure.
"You may have fallen in with a bad crowd, but you simply cannot behave in the way you did in the second half of last year," a judge told him.
"You clearly gave absolutely no thought to the sheer terror your actions inevitably caused to completely innocent members of the public."
"I don't feel safe on the streets," one victim said.
"I am just wondering if this sort of thing is going to happen to me again."
Hawley, of Shakespeare Road, Oldham, was jailed for four years and nine months.
'Jekyll and Hyde' thug tried to blind his ex so she couldn't look at other men
A controlling thug who terrorised his ex-girlfriend 'tried to blind her' so she couldn't look at other men during a 'sadistic' attack.
Aston Greenwood, 33, has been sentenced to 20 years in prison after the mum in her 30s was left with serious injuries and permanent scarring around her eyes.
He smashed his way into her home in the middle of the night as she slept, a court heard.
Greenwood repeatedly hit her over the head with a guitar and a glass lamp, before using broken shards of glass as he 'tried to blind her' so she couldn't look at other men.
Just before police arrived and stopped him, Greenwood told his ex: "You didn’t think I’d come through your house to murder you, did you?"
The brutal attack was the culmination of five years of controlling behaviour, during which he 'bullied, terrorised, belittled and isolated' her.
Greenwood, of Lancaster Street, Oldham, pleaded guilty to wounding with intent, controlling or coercive behaviour, two counts of assault and making threats to kill.
He received a 20 year extended sentence, including 15 years in prison and an extra five years on licence.
Paranoid dad convinced his girlfriend was sleeping with his best friend set house on fire
A paranoid dad convinced his girlfriend was sleeping with his best friend set fire to their house.
Firefighters raced to the scene after Ryan Lomax started the blaze in an apparent bid to commit suicide.
His sister bravely brought him to safety as the fire raged and destroyed the attic of the terraced house in Radcliffe, Bury.
No-one was hurt and the blaze didn't spread to neighbouring homes, but it caused £80,000 worth of damage.
Lomax, 30, who has battled mental health problems, has now been jailed for arson.
He had become 'extremely paranoid' and believed that his girlfriend of five years had been in a relationship with his best friend, which she 'vehemently denied', Minshull Street Crown Court heard.
Lomax, of Brookbottom Road, Radcliffe, was jailed for two-and-a-half years after pleading guilty to arson, being reckless as to whether life was endangered.
'Polite young man' unmasked as Encrochat dealer who flogged drugs and luxury Mercedes to live lavish lifestyle
A 'polite young man' has been unmasked as an Encrochat drug dealer who traded cars for drugs in a huge cocaine and amphetamine operation.
Remez Caffrey, 24, from Moston, sold drugs under the name 'FrostJacket' with his co-defendant John Chean, 33.
They were found using the handle to deal class A and B drugs up and down the country and pictured living a lavish lifestyle.
In messages recovered following a Europe-wide hack into Encrochat, a system used exclusively by members of organised crime groups to plan criminal activities, they were caught discussing buying and selling drugs.
In one exchange, they admitted to another user that the account was used ‘for work’.
And in another they arranged to meet a man to trade a 20 plate Mercedes for 18kg of amphetamine in Moston.
Caffrey and Chean have now both been jailed for a total of almost 20 years.
Knife-wielding thug's bizarre rant in four-hour stand off with police
A thug who refused to let officers in to his flat after complaints about 'partying' and loud music said 'anyone could buy a uniform'.
Abdul Muhith, 34, claimed he didn't know it was the police who were knocking on his door.
He barricaded the entrance to his flat and was involved in a four-hour stand off, until he eventually surrendered.
When officers arrived at his flat in Longsight he told them to 'f*** off', and claimed to be holding a knife to his throat and said he would 'slice it' if anyone came inside.
He threatened to 'blow up' any other officer that came into the property.
Muhith was sentenced to 15 months in prison, after pleading guilty to affray and assaulting an emergency worker.
He also admitted criminal damage after smearing faeces in a cell at the police station.
Law student breaks down in tears as he's jailed for grooming boy, 13, on PlayStation and trying to meet him at hotel
A law student sobbed as he was jailed for grooming a 13-year-old boy on PlayStation and booking a hotel to meet him.
Ashley Brooks, 25, was speaking to the teenager for 18 months before arranging the visit to Birmingham.
However, police intercepted the boy’s phone when Brooks called him and asked the police if he could ‘say goodbye’, Minshull Street Crown Court heard.
The police told him no, but Brooks then turned up at the house and asked if the boy was there, before apologising and leaving.
The court heard that he had earlier come to the attention of police in Northern Ireland after speaking to a 10-year-old boy whilst pretending to be a teenage girl online.
Brooks, of Holly Street, Tottington, Bury, pleaded guilty to being an adult attempting to meet a boy following grooming, and was jailed for 24 months.
